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INTERVIEW: The Bellamy Brothers and The Bacon Brothes "Guilty Of The Crime"

The Bellamy Brothers, well known country duo for their hit song “Let Your Love Flow” have teamed up with the Bacon Brothers (Kevin who alone is a well established movie actor and Michael an accomplished film and TV composer, and together have had a band for 15 years.) with a new single titled “Guilty of the Crime” as well as a new video. The video was filmed at a prison in Memphis, TN and features the Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannen Doherty.

The two sets of brothers were in Nashville on Tuesday September 1st and invited media to join them for a private invitation meet and greet and interview prior to their performance on the Grand Ole Opry.

Q.The most excited thing everyone in the room is looking forward to is seeing all four of you on the Grand Ole Opry tonight. Could I have each of you share your comments on sharing the Opry stage this evening?A.(Michael) I never expected in my whole life I would be playing at the Grand Ole Opry and I think it is going to be one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. When you do anything live, and this is live radio, anything can happen, so we hope nothing bad happens.A.(Kevin) It has taken the grace of the Bellamy Brothers to get a couple boys from Philly down here and play with them. Michael used to live here and I remember being a little boy and standing outside the Ryman and the whole experience would blow me away because it was like nothing I had ever seen growing up. For me it is one of the things, I guess like my own Bucket List I can check off.A.(Bellamy Brothers) For us it is quite a feat. We do not get to play at the Opry as often as some artist so each time is very meaningful and special and to do it with the Bacon Brothers makes it even more special to us.

Q.What is one of the biggest surprises in doing all of this that you really did notexpect when you started this?A. (Michael) We really did not expect anything! (laughter) We met each other atSturgis, SD and hung out and they asked us to collaborate on a song and we did; a few months went by and they called and said “Hey let’s shoot this video for the song” and we did. We have had a great time, and they have treated us like buddies and we felt like we wanted to be a part of the promotion, so they asked us to come down.(Bellamy Brothers) There has not been any grand strategy. We were pleased and surprised by the Bacon’s passion for the music.

Q.Los Angeles and Nashville are two very different creative communities that do not often work well together. How big of a potential do you see for the filming and recording to be blended?A. (Kevin) For myself, I always try and keep the two things separate. I will get ideaspitched to me in the acting side where they have a script where I get to sing, butthe song stinks and would not do any justice to me; and on the flip side I try to keep the music separate.A. (Michael) I like to see music based shows when they work, but I do not have anyidea how much of an audience there is for that. I do not know if there is amarriage for the two right now. I started to compose and write music when I livedin Nashville and I love the songwriting aspect.A. (Bellamy Brothers) We are about to celebrate our 35th Anniversary in the musicbusiness and we are very song driven people, so this project in particular wasrefreshing for us.

Q. How did Shannon Doherty become involved?A. (Bellamy Brothers) My wife has a friend who is a very close friend of Shannon’sand when it came time for the video shoot and we needed a female actress shecalled her and it all just fell into place.

Q. Is there a story about the selection of the song you choose to collaborate on?A. (Bellamy Brothers) No, we simply liked the song and it worked well with theBacon Brother’s. Hopefully this will bring some of our people and our fans tothem and vice versa. And in fact we just cut one of their songs.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the experience of making the video? Was it fun?Were there any incidences that happened?A. (Kevin) Well I wandered into an area I was not supposed too. And keep in mind,this was a real, working prison. The guards did not tell me I was not supposed tobe there, maybe they were embarrassed or whatever; I noticed it was very loudand it was not long and they took me back over to the area I was supposed to bein. There was also a time I had pulled my hand out of my pocket and I dropped atwenty dollar bill on the ground and a prisoner actually handed it back to me,which I felt was pretty cool considering where I was.

Q. How much input did you actually have on the treatment and the outcome of thevideo?A.(Bellamy Brothers) When we initially spoke with the director (Laura Lyness) weinitially talked about a different scenario, not a real working prison. Then she sentus the idea of a girl in a jail cell and it kept evolving from the initial concept.Making a video is not set in stone, it is more about the lighting and gettingeveryone to remember words and the rest just falls into place.

Q. With all the pressures of being a duo, and in light of the announcement of the splitof Brooks and Dunn, you have been together 35 and 15 years respectively;how have you kept it together?A. (Michael) We do get on each others nerves at times and we are brothers, so we aregoing to fight, but in the same breathe, there is a built in sense of respect andintegrity and we both know where the lines are.

Q. Kevin, I wanted to ask you specifically, what does music fulfill for you thatperhaps the acting does not?A. I do not know that I play music because it is not something I am not getting fromthe acting. I play music because it comes to me, it is in my head and I feel that ifyou write a song and you play it for your brother or your family and there is pointwhere you have a need to play it for other people as well. We had the option ofrecording and putting a band together and actually doing that. Michael wasalready in a career in the music business when we did that so it was a natural wayto evolve for us. We play very small venues that are intimate. I guess I justhappen to have two separate ways of expressing things; one is acting and the otheris through music.

Q. What part of being brothers makes you good collaborators? Do you think it helpsinfluence the ability to collaborate over an act that is not family?A. (Bellamy Brothers) I believe there is a natural telepathy that goes along withbeing brothers. I can make the same mistake on stage as my brother while he ismaking it, which is a strange thing. The other is communication, which is tighterthan even I realize it is at times (especially after working together so long). Ourparents taught us from a very early age about working together and those ethicsremain with us to this day.A. (Kevin) I agree there is a lot of unspoken DNA. You have different voices, but yetthere is a special blend that compliments the other like no one else can.A. (Michael) I think respect is the stronger thing. What a lot of people do not realizeis that my brother writes most of the songs for us, and that is something I respectabout him. We go through many of the same experiences and he will write a song,then play it for me and I will think to myself “I was there for that” and it makes itthat more special.

Q. Was there a reason you chose the Memphis prison?A. (Bellamy Brothers) We were initially thinking about the old prison here inNashville, but our director and crew were in Memphis and Kevin was on one coast and Michael in New York, so really it was more about logistics. The other thing is, but what we did not know initially was that Shannon Doherty is from Memphis. That was probably a part of the reason we were able to get her for the part; as she was able to spend some time at home.

Q. (Directed to the Bacon brothers) Have you thought about collaborating andwriting for a musical or play?A. (Kevin) We bounced around the thought of a Broadway play, but the thought didnot last long. It is very hard. In the two films I directed, Michael scored them. Heis an amazing composer and has massive amounts of musical talent which wasgreat to collaborate with him in that aspect, but to do some sort of a musical orplay is not something we have a desire to do.

Q. Kevin, the Opry is a tough audience, a demanding audience. Is there a point inyour performance when you know that you can look out into the audience and youknow you have them looking at you as Kevin Bacon the singer, and not KevinBacon the actor?A. No. I think one of the things about live music is it gives you butterflies. Workingon a movie set is like a safe place because you can go back and do it again andagain. Playing music to a live audience you cannot do that. There is always acertain amount of fear that goes with that.

Q. Do you feel more comfortable going on stage with the Bellamy Brothers?A. (Kevin) Absolutely. We have them with us, we are singing their song and havetheir band, so it makes it much easier.

Q. Can you tell us the songs that you will be performing tonight on the Opry?A. (Bellamy Brothers) We will be playing “If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body”,then bring Kevin and Michael out to do “Guilty of the Crime” and then they willdo a very special version of “Let Your Love Flow” with us. I think the hard partof doing a show like the Opry, is there is not really time to develop a sound, youget two three songs and you are off the stage. In a normal show you usually takethe first several songs to warm up and get settled down, and here you do not havethat liberty.

Q. Have you all discussed doing something together again in the future?A. (Kevin) Sure. The guys have already cut one of our songs called “All Strung OutOn You” and we have talked about future things as well.

Q. (Directed to the Bellamy Brothers) You have done songs with the ForresterSisters and now the Bacon brothers, what is next?A. (Bellamy Brothers) (joking) The brothers and sisters album (laughter) Howard andI are still open to doing music of any kind. We get bored if we are off the road forlong.

Q. Are you going to let Noah and Jesse open up for you?A. Yes, we have already had them open for us on several shows and in differentcountries and we love that.

Q. Can you both share some things about your respective latest or upcoming albums?A. (Michael) Ours is called “New Years Day” and is about moving away from homeand missing an event on New Years Day.A. (Bellamy Brothers) Ours is called “The Anthology, Vol. 1” and with next yearbeing our 35th Anniversary, this album consists of thirteen number one songs, fivemusicals and two duets; the one with the Bacon Brothers and then one with CliffRichard. We hope to also write a book for the anniversary and of course follow upwith a Vol. 2 album. We want to try and get two or three years out of celebratingthe anniversary.

Q. What is next for the promotion of this current single and video?A. (Bellamy Brothers) Howard and I are headed to Wisconsin tomorrow. We thoughtwe would do this press conference, bring everyone together at one time and thenperform on the Opry. We do not have anything else at the moment planned for thepromotion, but you never k now.

3 comments:

This was a great interview. I am a big fan of The Bacon Brothers and am now a fan of The Bellamy Brothers. Their video collaboration was done exceptionally well and the two sets of brothers pair very well, musically and on camera. I hope some of the Bellamy Brother's fans come join our fan base as well. All you have to do is see The Bacon Brother live and you'll be hooked!

What a great interview! I love Guilty of the Crime and it is cool to hear that the Bellamy's cut a Bacon Brothers song. I'm looking forward to hearing their interpretation of it. I sooo wish I could have been in Nashville for this show. The Bacon Brothers have a fun rockin' sound that I think lots of country fans would enjoy. I hope you check them out!